Agenda-Powered Strategy Session: Our Template

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, organizations must have a clear, actionable strategy to drive growth and success. A well-structured strategy session aligns leadership, sharpens priorities and lays the groundwork for long-term progress. However, without a solid framework, meetings can become disorganized and ineffective.

That’s why we’ve designed a strategy session template – a proven framework to ensure your team remains focused, aligned, and results-driven.

But first, let’s start with the definition.

What is a strategy session?

A strategy session is a focused, high-impact meeting where teams analyze challenges, identify opportunities and develop actionable plans. It fosters collaboration, sharpens decision-making, and ensures alignment toward business objectives.

Typical plan (agenda) for a one-day strategy session

A well-crafted agenda helps you align your vision, prioritize efforts, and achieve strategic objectives promptly and effectively. So let’s take a closer look at a day’s plan on how to run strategic planning meetings properly.

1. Welcome and Rules Setting (10:00 AM – 10:30 AM)

• Welcome participants;
• Present an overview of the current situation or challenge;
• Share the purpose and desired outcomes of the strategy session;
• Set rules.

2. ARA Analysis (10:30 AM – 11:30 AM)

• Identify the (A)achievements, (R)resources, and (A)advantages of our company;
• Encourage participants to share their perspectives and insights.

3. Break (11:30 AM – 11:45 AM)

4. Strategy Development (11:45 AM – 1:00 PM)

• Break into smaller groups or work as a whole to brainstorm potential strategies and tactics;
• Encourage creative thinking and open dialogue;
• Set a timeframe of how “far” do you plan your future for.

5. Lunch (1:00 PM – 2:00 PM)

• Enjoy a meal together and use the time for informal discussions and networking.

6. Strategy Refinement and Prioritization (2:00 PM – 3:30 PM)

• Review the brainstormed strategies and refine them as needed;
• Prioritize strategies based on impact, feasibility, and resources required.

7. Break (3:30 PM – 3:45 PM)

8. Action Planning and Goal Setting (3:45 PM – 5:30 PM)

• Develop detailed plans for the prioritized strategies, including tasks, responsibilities, and timelines;
• Establish clear, specific, and measurable goals for the project or initiative;
• Discuss the timeline and resources needed to achieve the goals.

9. Break (5:30 PM – 5:45 PM)

10. Commitment and Accountability (5:45 PM – 6:00 PM)

• Review action plans and confirm participants’ commitment to their assigned responsibilities;
• Establish methods for tracking progress, measuring success, and ensuring accountability.

11. Defining Obstacles (6:00 PM – 6:30 PM)

• Analyse potential challenges and solutions;
• Discuss the timeline and resources needed to achieve the goals.

12. Wrap-up and Next Steps (6:30 PM – 7:00 PM)

• Recap the day’s discussions and outcomes;
• Identify next steps, such as follow-up meetings or progress reports;
• Thank participants for their contributions and close the session.

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10 Commandments for Efficient Meetings

Start by setting some rules. Here’s the list we chose for our sessions:

1. Take breaks every 2 hours.
2. Do not interrupt your colleagues.
3. Stay on topic.
4. Start on time.
5. Keep phones on silent.
6. When someone speaks, everyone else listens.
7. Respect other opinions.
8. Combine ideas.
9. Do not criticize other people’s ideas.
10. Make decisions, not just discussions.

Establishing the foundation for proper behavior will help your company achieve top results. By ensuring that all team members adhere to a common set of guidelines, almost all issues can be effectively mitigated.

ARA Analysis

Widely known SWOT analysis is typically a part of almost any strategy session agenda. However, we had a suggestion from our facilitator Olha Sadokha to choose a different approach and started with the question “What are the achievements, resources, and advantages of our company?“.

“The most important things in your own life can be listed within three minutes.”

Here are some examples relevant to our organization:

Achievements

• Nine years as a successful business venture in the IT industry.
• A diversified customer portfolio.
• Well-written processes and procedures.
• Projected revenue.
• Positive reputation in the internal labor market.
• Long-term projects.
• Successful hiring in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey.

Resources

• Website with high traffic.
• Professional management team.
• Network of reliable partners.
• Experienced CEO.
• Equipment.
• Software.

Advantages

• Ambitious team that shares the same values.
• Loyal clients.
• Five-star ratings on resources like Clutch.
• Active on social media.
• Efficient marketing and SEO.
• High emotional intelligence among staff.
• Flexible business model.
• Remote work.
• Open-minded and ready for changes.
• Honesty with everyone.

Your achievements, resources, and advantages form the foundation of your company – the solid ground on which you will build your future. These are the assets you can rely on. Understanding what you already HAVE is essential to mapping out the path to what you want to achieve.

Strategy Development

Why is vision important in strategy development? We as human beings consume information and learn best through visual objects. We like pictures and imagine movie-like scenes while reading stories.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

To project your vision, you need to set a time frame. How far ahead do you plan for the future? In our scenario, with war on our doorstep and economic uncertainty in the US and Europe, we used the strategy session to plan our growth until December next year, with semiannual revisions and amendments.

Don’t bother categorizing your thoughts, you can do this later. Just let your brain and imagination explore your ideas. Give yourself at least 60 minutes to brainstorm your future.

☝️ Insight: Use stickers for each idea.

Strategy Refinement and Prioritization

The next crucial step is to categorize the extensive list you have. Merge similar points where necessary, as different people may express the same idea in different ways. See the example below to see how we grouped our ideas:

Market Position & Industry Leadership

• Industry Leadership: We are a role model in recruitment.
• Industry Ranking: We are among the top 10 employers in the IT sector within our category.

Regional & Talent Expertise

• Regional Expertise: We successfully hire in the LATAM region.
• Talent Network: We have the most extensive database of tech candidates from Eastern Europe.

Operational Excellence & Efficiency

• Efficiency: We present a new candidate to the client within five days of starting the recruitment campaign.
• Structured Processes: We have an established sourcing process and written procedures.

Employer Strength & Reputation

• Employer Reputation: We have a well-known and positive reputation as an employer.
• Employee Loyalty: All our employees are loyal to our company.

Business Stability & Growth

• Lead Predictability: We maintain a consistent number of lead conversions per month.
• Project Scale: Our average account has 10+ developers per project.
• Long-Term Engagements: We have at least 20 long-term projects.

Competitive Advantage

• Unique Value Proposition: We offer a distinct competitive advantage.

Finalizing these categories took longer than expected – it was already time for lunch by the time we wrapped up. The process of consolidating ideas and deciding on category names wasn’t always smooth. We debated, moved things around, and even argued at times to ensure each idea found its rightful place.

☝️ Insight: Do not be afraid to voice your opinions and engage in moderate debates with your colleagues. Seek the truth through discussion and interaction.

We grouped our ideas into categories and gave each a name. But with ten or more ideas, which ones mattered most?

To decide, each team member got 10 stickers to vote on the most important vision. They could spread them out or put all ten on one – no strict rules, just one key principle: use them wisely.

This simple method helped us see our top priorities at a glance. By the end, we had a strategy shaped by everyone, making sure we focused on what truly mattered.

Action Planning and Goal Setting

With all your priorities identified, you can now move on to the next part of your strategic process and start setting SMART goals.

For example, we have decided that by December “We want to be a role model in recruitment”.

How do we get there? Here are some of our SMART goals:

1. Present a new candidate to the client within five days of starting the recruitment campaign.
2. Hire a lead recruiter to manage the team.
3. Revise sourcing strategy and renew processes.
4. Appoint a dedicated recruiter for the LATAM region.
5. Migrate the old database to our new applicant tracking system.

Commitment and Accountability

Why do commitment and accountability always appear in strategy session templates? Here are two simple answers we learned over the years:

1. Collective responsibility leads to failure.
2. Commitment and accountability increase the likelihood of successful implementation of a strategic plan, create a culture of responsibility, facilitate monitoring and evaluation, and encourage transparency and communication.

We knew from our past experience that this was an important step to take. The task seemed to be easy – just put a sticker with your name on it next to the tasks.

When faced with the responsibility of accomplishing a challenging objective, one may hesitate before committing to taking on the task. After a few minutes had passed, we came to the realization that all the tasks had been assigned.

Once we had finished placing our stickers, we were ready to discuss what would prevent us from reaching our strategic goals.

☝️ Insight: Always appoint someone to be responsible for each goal. Collective responsibility doesn’t work.

Defining Obstacles

It might have seemed like our collaborative session was almost over, but there was still some important work to be done.

As we wrapped up our brainstorming, we expected to walk away with a clear list of tasks. However, we also wanted to identify the potential obstacles — what or who might prevent us from reaching our goals and ways to overcome it. Here’s what we determined:

• If toxic colleagues are holding the team back, we part ways with them.
• If our team is overwhelmed with daily tasks and unable to focus on strategic goals, we optimize processes or bring in more people.
• If we lack the experience needed to succeed, we seek guidance from experts and continue learning.

The list could go on, but the sooner you recognize what’s standing in your way, the faster you can move toward your goals.

Wrap-up and Next Steps

As our executive strategy session came to a close, we were all filled with a sense of accomplishment and excitement. Our heads were buzzing with ideas as we established our next steps before ending this successful meeting, which included:

• Adding our objectives to our internal business management system.
• Scheduling monthly check-up meetings to monitor progress.
• Revising our goals in six months.

Finally, we took time to express our gratitude to all participants for their complete engagement, leaving all of us with a sense of inspiration and optimism toward achieving our goals.

Tags: agenda, brainstorming, efficiency, planning, productivity